"Bill McKibben is not a person you'd expect to find handcuffed in the city jail in Washington, D.C. But that's where he spent three days in the summer of 2011, after leading the largest civil disobedience in thirty years to protest the Keystone XL pipeline. A few months later the protesters would see their efforts rewarded when President Obama agreed to put the project on hold. And yet McKibben realized that this small and temporary victory was at...

Offers insight into the camping trip that President Theodore Roosevelt and naturalist John Muir took to the redwoods of Yosemite in 1903, during which the two men had experiences and conversations that eventually contributed to the establishment of national parks in the United States.

"The prospect of a Green New Deal-sustainable energy, and justice for all Americans-has instilled millions of people with a sense of hope. To make it happen, the plan will require a national mobilization on a scale not seen since World War II. But will it be enough to prevent disaster? Scientists now warn that we have little time to eliminate greenhouse emissions. To do what's required, Stan Cox urges readers to embrace the Green New Deal but go beyond...

Rachel Carson, founder of the modern environmental movement, began work on her seminal book Silent Spring in the late 1950s, when a dizzying array of synthetic pesticides had come into use. Leading this chemical onslaught was the insecticide DDT. Effective against crop pests as well as insects that transmitted human diseases such as typhus and malaria, DDT had at first appeared safe. But as its use expanded, alarming reports surfaced of collateral...

"The fascinating story of a trial that opened a window onto the century-long battle to control nature in the national parks. When twenty-five-year-old Harry Walker was killed by a bear in Yellowstone Park in 1972, the civil trial prompted by his death became a proxy for bigger questions about American wilderness management that had been boiling for a century. At immediate issue was whether the Park Service should have done more to keep bears away...

The world's preeminent environmental organization began with a layer of soot on the windowsill of a Greenwich Village apartment. Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) founder John H. Adams, a pioneer of environmental action, was working as a lawyer for the U.S. Attorney's office when he and fellow lawyers teamed up to form a grassroots environmental advocacy group. Since 1970, NRDC has grown into an international powerhouse with 1.2 million members...

In the spring of 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt took a long trip to the far American West and capped his visit with a four-day camping trip through Yosemite with famed naturalist John Muir. Dodging persistent reporters, the men rode through ancient sequoia forests, climbed Glacier Peak and camped at the foot of Bridalveil Fall. As a direct result of this trip Roosevelt used his influence to help establish five new national parks and to create...

"The environmental movement encompasses many issues, including pollution, conservation, climate change, and alternative energy. Environmentalists maintain that people are part of ecosystems and must act to keep those systems balanced and healthy. This compelling guide to the history of the movement, including efforts today, focuses on important environmental crusaders, including Rachel Carson and John Muir, and the organizations that have fought for...